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Songs Of The Day 12/26/2013: Cannonball Adderley with Rick Holmes - Selections From "Love, Sex and the Zodiac"

In 1970 two worlds were hurtling towards each other at rapid velocity, set to shake the kingdoms of jazz and relationships at their cores: the legion of hard bop saxophone and the theory of astrological significance in sexual and romantic unions. If you felt a small bump in your split-level in 1970, then yeah, that's what that would have been.

Cancer:

Taurus:

Scorpio:

Virgo:

Cannonball Adderley, the jazz titan known for his association with Miles Davis and his own outfits, teamed up with narrator Rick Holmes to produce Love, Sex & The Zodiac. They recorded the album in 1970, but it wasn't released to the public until four years later. I have not been able to find a more complete biography on Rick Holmes, so I'm uncertain was his profession was other than narrator. Love, Sex & The Zodiac featured impressionistic, lightly grooving soul jazz playing under matter-of-fact instruction manuals read by Holmes on how to operate your new sexual and/or romantic partner, correspondent to their astrology sign. Jazz purists conveniently overlook this item in Adderley's catalog, but to be honest it could have been much, much worse if they'd waited around for Kenny G to grow up.

The Love, Sex & the Zodiac album is not to be confused with yet another, wholly separate album featuring Holmes and Cannonball's brother Nat, titled Soul Zodiac. That's right, there were two completely different recordings issued by the Adderley family that combined the zodiac and jazz. Soul Zodiac contains longer pieces, more freeform jams, and theoretically more extensive information about the characteristics of each astrological sign.

At press time I could not confirm the existence of a jazz-fusion effort by Joe Zawinul called Orson Welles Gets Down With Your Lucky Lottery Numbers but I'll do my best.